REAL PEOPLE, REAL ISSUES

May 2007

May 16, 2007

A veteran at 25? It usually unheard of unless you’re in the NBA or
the entertainment game. Clearly not a baller (a professional one, at
least), Marques Houston has made quite a name for himself as both a
singer and an actor. The singer recently dropped his third solo album, Veteran.
The album, featuring production from The Underdogs, Tank and Ne-Yo,
among others, recently hit shelves, so GIANTmag.com caught up with MH
to chop it up about the album, its delayed release and horror flicks. GIANT: Congrats on the new album. Marques Houston: Yes sir… Thank you very much, man. Ya’ll better make sure ya’ll go get it. The Veteran album has been hanging around for a
minute. People been talking about it, I know I first heard about it
late last year. Tell me a little bit about what the hold up has been in
terms of getting it out there. Jim, I would say timing. It just wasn’t the right time. When you release
an album, especially an album that’s so highly anticipated, you just
want to have the right time and you just want to make sure it’s right.
I didn’t want people to be coming up to me and be like ‘When’s the new
album coming out?’ and it be wack. I had to really put my time and
effort into it and make sure that it was the right thing. Can you tell me a little bit about the first single, “Circle”? Why did you choose that as the first single?I’m a very big Bryan-Michael Cox fan and I felt like it was the right
single that showed a lot of maturity as far as who I was and how I was
going at my career and everything like that. So, it was the right
single to go with I felt. MORE ON THIS STORY

Barack Obama seems to have come out against affirmative action for rich African-Americans. It’s a position that makes sense politically. As I noted here, it’s hard to justify special considerations for the children of millionaires, no matter what their skin color.I’m
not going to get too exercised on the problems of the children of
millionaires but for the record....If standardized test scores are an
important factor in admissions decisions, then rich blacks probably need affirmative action
in order to be admitted to elite schools. Although I haven’t seen data
on the test scores of blacks who come from wealthy families, there is
empirical information about middle income blacks. It suggests that on
standardized tests they are out-performed by low income whites.
This "achievement gap" is not likely to disappear in the next couple of
decades. So if Obama wants his kids to go to Harvard like he did, he
should hope affirmative action is still around. Here’s the more important issue: Obama also said "if we
have done what needs to be done to ensure that kids who are qualified
to go to college can afford it, affirmative action becomes a
diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society."I
simply don’t understand the good Senator’s analysis here. Affirmative
action is different from financial aid. It was originally intended as a
race based remedy, not a class-based remedy. It
disproportionately benefits middle-income blacks, who are more likely
to be "qualified" for admission to elite institutions than low-income
blacks. Keeping in mind the policy's limited goal of
helping blacks getting admitted to the relatively small number of
universities that practice selective admissions, it has been extremely successful. It
has helped maintain a professional class of African-Americans. It
will remain a critical tool for the difficult goal of racial equality
for years to come.

I
just returned from a conference in New Orleans, and was saddened to see
up-close the continuing disgrace that is this nation's response to
Katrina and its aftermath. The day I arrived was the same day as a
mid-sized storm -- not a tropical storm or even an especially severe
storm, but simply a moderately sized, typical summer storm. The city's
infrastructure simply wasn't up to the task. Streets and homes were
flooded, as insufficient care has been paid to the operation of even
basic water pumps. And that's probably the best of it. Roughly half
of the population remains displaced, and varied government agencies --
from the perpetually inept FEMA to the formalistically by-the-book SBA
-- apparently find reasons to deny claims for redevelopment grants and
low-interest loans, rather than to respond meaningfully (let alone
competently) to the palpable human needs of the Gulf Coast's forgotten
poor. Yet, ultimately, this should be no surprise. The Black
poor of New Orleans -- like the Black underclass more generally -- were
neglected by our government (and, frankly, the Black Middle Class too)
before and, most evidently, during the disaster that was Katrina. Why
should we expect anything different now?

• Spectacular Celebrity-Studded Opening & Closing Night Galas
• 100+ Film Screenings (features, shorts, student, documentary, animation, music video)
• Industry networking receptions and parties
• Infotainment Conference featuring 20+ workshops, panel and roundtable discussions and 100 industry speakers
• Storyteller Competition Live Staged Reading
• Filmmaker and Storyteller Awards Ceremony
The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) is an annual 6-day celebration of black cinema drawing together established filmmakers, popular film and TV stars, writers, directors, industry executives, emerging artists and diverse new audiences from Southern California and around the world. Attracting such stars and industry insiders as John Singleton, Sidney Poitier, Forest Whitaker, Spike Lee, George Tillman, Tina Andrews, Reuben Cannon, Anthony Anderson, Blair Underwood, Sanaa Lathan, Bill Duke, Kasi Lemmons, Vondie Curtis Hall, Tisha Campbell, LisaRaye and Nicole Ari Parker, the festival has become an annual hotbed for the Black Hollywood creative community.
The 2007 festival will be held June 5-10, 2007 in Beverly Hills, California, and will showcase the artistic expression of more than one-a hundred black filmmakers from around the world. HBFF was founded in 1998 by its executive director, Tanya Kersey, in order to enhance the careers of emerging and established black filmmakers through a public exhibition and competition program. The festival’s goal is to play an integral role in discovering and launching independent films and filmmakers by bringing them to the attention of the industry, media and public. MORE ON THIS STORY

A rep from Whitney Houston’s label has responded to a paragraph
written Monday by Fox.com’s Roger Friedman, which cited a source that
claimed the singer had bloodshot eyes and appeared to be “stoned” while
attending Stevie Wonder’s surprise birthday party in the Bahamas. Houston is “straight as an arrow, not doing drugs and
working hard in the studio,” Friedman quoted the label as stating in
his Tuesday He added: “Let's take Whitney and her reps at their word.
Why not? The goal here is to see Houston back in business, healthy and
restored to her former vibrancy pre-Bobby Brown. If it's happening, and
her appearance and attitude belie it, well, what the heck.”Freidman adds: “As I reported in February, among the
producer/writers working with her are Diane Warren, R. Kelly, Jermaine
Dupri and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. Warren's song is titled "I Didn't
Know How Much Strength I Had." Dupri cut his track last week.”

ATLANTA - Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child
who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and
motivational speaking, has died. She was 51.King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a
spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of
death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said."She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and
nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and
inspirational contributions to society," the King family said in a
statement.Born on Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Yolanda Denise King was
just an infant when her home was bombed amid the turbulent civil rights
era.She became an actress, ran a production company and appeared in
numerous films, including "Ghosts of Mississippi," and as Rosa Parks in
the 1978 miniseries "King." "Yolanda was lovely. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it
with dignity and charm," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, One of her
father's close aides in the civil rights movement. "She was a warm and
gentle person and was thoroughly committed to the movement and found
her own means of expressing that commitment through drama." The Rev. Al Sharpton said he expressed his condolences to her brother
Martin Luther King III on Wednesday. Sharpton said Yolanda King was a
"torch bearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own
right." MORE ON THIS STORY

May 15, 2007

It’s
time to face the ugly truth. Romance on the radio has, for the most part, been tossed aside for unmentionables in a box. We may have all
cracked up at Justin Timberlake’s hilarious music video parody on Saturday Night Live, but it was more of a nervous laugh-to-keep-from-crying type of thing. Deep down we know that R&B
is careening down a slippery slope paved with strippers, booty-smacking
and questionable singing abilities. True soul singers are being
overshadowed by thinly disguised rappers trying to hold notes over
slick, over-produced tracks. And John Legend is pissed off about it. “I’m
so not feeling that general direction,” Legend says to explain his solo
mission to save R&B from itself. “People rap-singing has led to the
separation of melody from R&B, which is really unfortunate. I’m not
in the same lane. I’m trying to create something transcendent,
something that inspires people.” At the very least, Legend is hoping to
bring a little beauty to your speakers with timeless love songs that
won’t make your poor grandmother’s head explode. Today,
however, he is just hoping to stay awake. He’s on the last leg of his
three-week European tour and is gearing up for a performance in
Manchester, England. It’s a struggle to keep the sleepiness
out of his
voice. “I don’t get to see many sights on this tour,” Legend says.
“It’s pretty much constant work and travel.” In a few days, though,
he’ll be off to Springfield, Ohio, to spend Christmas with his family.
Then he’ll head to New York to celebrate his twenty-eighth birthday
before going back on the road. Legend is on the
grind to promote Once Again, the follow up to his 2004 smash debut, Get
Lifted. The new album is young and fresh, but with an ancient spirit.
There’s no brash party track and no clever wordplay from Kanye. It’s
simply an organic blend of live instrumentation, gospel, soul and
heartfelt songwriting. And as good as it is, it’s hard to see where an
album like this belongs in the current landscape. “It was a challenge
trying to figure out where to market Once Again because it doesn’t fit
neatly in different categories. You have to have eclectic tastes to
appreciate it—not everyone gets it.” Whereas the multi-platinum Get
Lifted was the album of 2004, earning the singer three Grammys and
heavy rotation everywhere—from top-market radio stations to your local
hair salon—Once Again is enjoying a quieter (albeit loving) reception.
“The trap I try not to get into is to write for a program director,”
insists Legend. “I wasn’t worried about how it was received
commercially. The only way I would be worried is if I didn’t believe in
the music. And I really believe in this music.” SUBSCRIBE TO UPTOWN

Words by Turquoise Toppin GRANT HILL'S collection of African-American Art will make him a legend off the court. For the past twelve years, Grant Hill, Orlando Magic’s star
guard-forward, has led the Detroit Pistons, the NBA All-Stars, several
Olympic teams and, of course, the Magic to many victories. But as the
34-year-old looks beyond basketball, he wants to be remembered as more
than one of the best all-around players of his generation. While his
charitable work with Habitat for Humanity has led him to build homes
for underprivileged families and he has volunteered with the
organization Prevent Child Abuse America, Hill is turning a lifelong
love of art into his most notable endeavor off the court. “It’s so
important for people from all walks of life, young and old, to be
exposed,” says Hill, who has served as an associate of the Orlando
Museum of Art for three years. With a personal collection of more than
eighty paintings, sculptures and castes by artists such as Romare
Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Ernie Barnes and Arthello Beck Jr., he is
considered one of the world’s premier collectors of African-American
art. And after launching the two-and-a-half year-long tour of forty-six
of these pieces, called “Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill
Collection of African-American Art,” he is also one of the world’s
black art educators. Growing
up in Reston, Virginia, Hill was surrounded by the paintings and
sculptures that his parents, Janet and ex-Dallas Cowboys football
player Calvin Hill, loved. “They were always passionate about art and
enjoyed sharing their enthusiasm with family and friends,” he recalls.
“Especially me.” In 1993, as his classmates at Duke University were
decorating their rooms with beer posters and bikini calendars, the
college junior hung a print of Ernie Barnes’ “Duke’s Fast Break,” a
1986 painting of the school’s basketball team, in his apartment. “It
couldn’t have cost much,” he remembers about the purchase. “But I
thought I was big time.” Regardless, it was nothing compared to what he
paid for the authentic pieces he now owns. “Still, it goes to show that
you can be a fan and support African-American artists without having to
spend a lot of money.” SUBSCRIBE TO UPTOWN MAGAZINE

May 14, 2007

By Frank León Roberts -- This morning the following comment was posted in my topic below, regarding the recent controversy at Flavaworks Inc: "It's
about the children and porn of any kind is not something to have spack
in the middle of a neighborhood. I would not want porn stars working or
living in any area that I lived in. If a sex party opened in my
neighborhood I would be the first to call and tell the police about it.
There is a place for all of these things and it is not in an area where
kids could possibly be exposed to then. The Freedom of Speech is not a
cause or protection from ignorance. But you already have your hands in
the pockets of Flavaworks so since your getting a check then you really
don't care one way or the other." Let
me respond. First off, I'm so glad you've shared this opinion with us.
It actually confirms many of my suspicions regarding the underlining
issues framing this controversy. "Anonymous," let me pose a few quick
questions to you---and I'd also like to welcome responses from others. First
of all, it truly amazes me that because I have dared to challenge the
rhetoric of neoliberal moralism ("its not good for the children") I'm
accused of "selling" out. Trust me when I tell you a few hundred bucks
for snapping photographs at a ball certainly is not enough to "buy me
out." The last time I checked I was a grown man and fully funded
research fellow---I think I'm able to live pretty comfortably on my own
without any big, fat "pay off" checks from Flavaworks. Sorry boo, I'm
not on that payroll. But here's what I'd like to ask you, and others: Are
you also an advocate of censoring the homes in this town where adulters
live? Or what about those families that are engaged in incestous acts
in their home? Would you also recommend that these homes be banished
from this neighborhood of puritan saints? Can you articulate your
investment in constructing public sex as "perverted," and/or "harmful"?
Explain to me how people having sex in the privacy of their own home,
regardless of whether or not it these acts are televised, poses a
threat to the safety of neighboring children? I
find it quite ironic that the moral reasoning you invoke here is
completely aligned with the state's logic for denying the "right to
privacy" for gay people in the United States. This sort of "its about
the children" logic has historically served as the United States'
justification for the legal disfranchisement of gay men in particular
(the most obvious example being the illegalization of sodomy
instantiated in Bowers. vs. Hardwick).

As wildfires, floods and tornadoes batter the nation, the readiness of
the National Guard to deal with those disasters, as well as potential
terrorist assaults, is so depleted by deployments to foreign wars and
equipment shortfalls that Congress is considering moves to curtail the
president's powers over the Guard and require the Defense Department to
analyze how prepared the country is for domestic emergencies. The debate over the state of the National Guard has been intensifying
for several years, but a powerful tornado in Kansas early this month
has spun the topic back into the spotlight.When the small farming community of Greensburg was effectively wiped
off the map, leaving 11 people in the area dead and miles of rubble to
be searched and cleared, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was direct in
her explanation for why the response had not been faster: The policies
of the federal government, she said, had left the Kansas National Guard
understaffed and underequipped. Her comments infuriated the Bush administration, which countered that
the vast majority of her state's Guard members were available to be
called up and that she would be provided any equipment she lacked as
soon as she requested it. MORE ON THIS STORY

May 13, 2007

As an ardent admirer of the first two "Spider-Man" films, it brings me
no pleasure to say that Part 3 is not great. It's OK, and it seems to
have been made uncynically (i.e., not just as a money-maker), but it's
not nearly as thrilling, funny, or emotionally powerful as it could be
-- no, as it should be, given the materials it has to work with. It begins just months after Part 2. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and
Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) are in love with each other, and all
of New York is in love with Spider-Man. M.J. has a leading role in a
Broadway show. Peter intends to propose marriage, and saintly old Aunt
May (Rosemary Harris) has given both her blessing and her own
engagement ring. But danger lurks on the fringes of Peter's life! Perhaps too much
danger, actually, to be adequately addressed in one film. Peter's
erstwhile best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) still blames him for
his father's death and is following in Dad's footsteps on the path
toward total insanity, re-creating his experiments and learning how to
use the old man's Green Goblin weaponry for himself. A low-rent
criminal named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) has escaped from
prison, and while this initially means nothing to Peter, it becomes
important when he and Aunt May learn that it was actually Marko who
killed dear old Uncle Ben in the first film, not the thief Peter
pursued and exacted revenge against. A brash young photographer named
Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) is trying to replace Peter at The Daily
Bugle, and has nearly persuaded J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) to give
him a full-time position -- something Peter has never been offered. MORE ON THIS STORY

(AP) A sinkhole swallowed two unoccupied cars Wednesday morning
after rushing water from a main break undermined the road, police said. The sinkhole opened under the end of a busy bridge, which officials
closed as a precaution. The bridge is used by about 31,400 cars each
day. The sinkhole blocked residents of more than 50 houseboats from driving
to their homes, said Gregg Hirakawa, spokesman for the Seattle
transportation department. The residents could still walk to their homes, Hirakawa said. Police
and fire officials were making alternate plans to reach the homes in
case of emergencies. The sinkhole opened under the south end of the University Bridge over
Portage Bay. Authorities were still allowing boats to pass beneath. A preliminary inspection of the south approach to the bridge found no significant or imminent problems, Hirakawa said. "We have discovered some undermining of the soil, but there's still a
lot of water down there," he said. Hirakawa declined to say when the
bridge would reopen. After the sinkhole opened, the main spewed water for about three hours.
Andy Ryan, spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities, said the flow was
shut down slowly to avert problems with the system. MORE ON THIS STORY

DADDY’S DAY Boris Kodjoe is on the cover of Ebony Magazine’s 2007
Father’s Day Edition. According to various sources, Ludacris was
originally scheduled to appear on Ebony’s June cover, but was quickly
replaced because hip-hop/IMUS racy lyrics thing. I don’t get why they
replaced him, but whatever.
IS SHE BEHIND HIS MANAGEMENT CHANGE? USHER’S MOM TAKES [...]MORE ON THIS STORY AND OTHERS Tyra is on the cover of June 2007’s Shape magazine. Inside she
addresses the public scrutiny she dealt with concerning her body and
how she is coping these days.
Ok girl, we get it…you like your body, so enough preaching. That’s a
cute bathing suit though. And all it took was an old white man…
The NAACP is reportedly holding a funeral this summer in Detroit for
the “N” word, in light of the Don Imus controversy.
Much like they did 63 years ago with the symbolic funeral for Jim Crow,
the civil rights organization will do the same for the slang [...] So apparently, T.I has some sort of stage act going on with the cursing
out the audience gig. CL reader Sincere linked me this video of T.I
performing the same exact act at Cornell University as he did in the
video I posted last week. Infact, if you look at the related videos on
youtube, [...]With the news of the week push-back of Kelly Rowland’s album, I was a
little disappointed. But I guess the leaking of this new song, produced
by Scott Storch kind of makes up for it. Although I don’t think that
“Comeback” is a good representation of what the rest of the album is
going to [...]

May 11, 2007

By Frank León Roberts
Moreover, no one has called attention to the
obvious: after the "scandal" that Flavaworks went through last summer,
the company drastically changed its policies and have maintained and
mandated safe-sexual practices among the men now involved in the Miami
location. Bernie Tarver even published a statement on his blog "congratulating" the company for its initatives.
One year later, and it seems as though the company has remained totally
consistent: there have been no instances of unsafe sex documented in
the CocoDorm Miami nor have their been any new "raw" videos produced.
So why is that when the media finally gets a hold of the fact that
there is a gay sex house in a white neighborhood, we feel the need to
return to square one? Regardless of whether or not you agree with the
idea of public sex (i.e. televised sex acts) this has nothing to do
with safety of the house. Also, some people have mentioned that
there have been fights in the dorm. But who exactly was involved in the
fighting? This is a part of this puzzle I think people might be
surprised to hear about. Beginning last summer, Flavaworks hired a
fully certified, African American community health specialist (who
actually left his job at a major black gay agency in New York City to
work with Flava). This individual was then responsible for maintaining
the CocoDorm's public health standards. Ironically, it was this man,
not the dorm residents, who was caught on tape attempting to hit a
resident with a iron. What's my point? Quite simply: some of the "wrong
doing," that has been going on in that house has nothing to do with the
men having sex there, but actually has taken place at the hands of
so-called "informed public health officials," just like the ones over
at the Chicago Department of Health. Then
there is the issue of Flavaworks being "owned" by a white man, Phillip
Bleicher. I've heard numerous black gay men using this issue to suggest
that the company embodies a modern form of "slavery." Are these critics also aware that Pitbull Productions, home of the widely popular websites thugporn.com, tiger-tyson.com, fuckflixx.com, netdixx.com, as well as the home of blatino porn superstars Tiger Tyson, Castro, T Malone and Double R is also owned by a white man?
In fact, PitBull is purportedly the leading black gay porn company in
the United States. How does that complicate this discussion? What
happens to this conversation when we acknowledge the fact that a great
number of the black community's most prized and beloved gay pornstars
all work for companies owned by white men? While we are jerking off to
Castro are we still launching these on-high racialized critiques? Is
this also "slavery," or is it ok because we like Tiger so much? MORE ON THIS STORY

By Sherrilyn Ifill
Last week I finished Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas
, Michael Fletcher and Kevin Merida’s new book about you know who. But
I found myself picking it up again this week, just to re-read certain
sections. Some of the stories about Thomas’ life (I’m especially
interested in his time as Chair of the EEOC and his life post-Supreme
Court confirmation) are just fascinating. The book is compelling in
large part because Fletcher and Merida are meticulously fair to Thomas,
chronicling his generosity to friends, willingness to mentor young
people, and his loyalty, as well as his crushing insecurity, his
childish resentment of light-skinned blacks, and his pathologically
thin-skin (this guy never forgets a slight). This is no hatchet job.
But it’s also no tribute. It’s a thoroughly researched book that bears
the mark of damned good journalism. And yet you feel the authors’
(both black) genuine effort to understand how Thomas came to be . . .
Thomas. What emerges is a picture of a highly intelligent black man
who has in almost every phase of his public life either been compelled
or who has chosen to confront some of the thorniest, most complex
questions about race. As the authors reveal, Thomas to his credit, is
unafraid to address the conundrum of race. But what we see is a man so
deeply damaged --both emotional and psychologically – that his answers
to these difficult questions are almost always warped by his often very
painful, personal racial experiences. And this damage was in place
long before the infamous confirmation hearings.

What emerges also
is a picture of a man who has almost always lived a dual life, and so
the book is aptly named. Thomas is, according to Fletcher and Merida,
“a welter of conflicting personas.” From his childhood -- principally
spent not in the destitution of PinPoint, Georgia where he lived only
until he was six, but in the middle- class home of his grandfather in
Savannah -- to his time as the lone black at Catholic schools and one
of very few at Holy Cross college, Thomas’ walk has been marked by
duality. And while this is true for many middle-class blacks –
especially those educated at elite white institutions in the ‘70s and
‘80s – Thomas appears to never have been able to comfortably integrate
his disparate experiences into one identity. Instead he continues to
advance two very different identities, even now. I see this in Thomas’
posturing as a kind of independent black intellectual freedom fighter
– a role he plays out in dissents and concurrences in almost every race
case the Court decides -- alongside his almost rabid insistence on
colorblindness. Thomas at once demands that we not judge him based on
his race, and advances right-wing arguments and constitutional
interpretation from an explicitly “black” point of view. For examples
of this, check out his concurrence in Holder v. Hall , or his dissent in Grutter v. Bollinger.
In fact, Thomas seems to go out of his way to write concurrences and
dissents in race cases just to provide a kind of “black” perspective.
Yet an obsession of his professional life has been his insistence that
he not be defined by his race. And he demands this of others as well.
Indeed, according to the authors, Thomas won’t hire blacks as law
clerks if they taken “that Afro-American studies stuff” as
undergraduates. MORE ON THIS STORY

May 10, 2007

Behind his "nice guy" exterior lies a smart and aggressive competitor.
That mix of brains and brawn helped him claim victory in 'The Guantlet
II.' Now he's back for the latest installment, 'The Inferno III.'
The morning after the premiere, AOL editor Geoff Bennett
talked to Williams about CT's elimination, a 'Las Vegas' cast reunion,
his unconventional police mug shot and his secret to staying in top
shape. What was going through your mind during the first episode when you unexpectedly saved Davis and jumped into the Inferno? We were down two competitions already. I thought by stepping up, it
would help the whole morale of the team. Looking back, it worked. But
back then, I didn't know what would happen. (Laughs) What was the deal with CT? Did he ever explain why he punched Davis in the face? That was the whole deal -- there was no reason behind it. He's a Boston
kid from the streets, and he speaks with his knuckles. He wanted to
intimidate our team and with the alcohol and everything, it came out
being a punch in the face, so he ended up getting sent home.

Last week I wrote about the economic plight of black males and many of
you responded that that plight could be eliminated it black males would
just get over it and work harder.I'm sure not everyone agrees with that sentiment, but for those who do,
here's an example of a young, black male for whom neither work ethic
nor short money is a problem. His name's Ephran W. Taylor II, he's 24
and the CEO of a publicly-traded company, City Capital Corp.,
which manages $150 million in investments in sectors from residential
housing to oil (yes, oil, as in petroleum, as in that expensive stuff
you pump into your Navigator every day), according to his blog. To expand the company, he recently signed a $50 million financing deal. MORE ON THIS STORY

ORLANDO, Fla. - When it comes to handling race in sports, nobody does it better than the NBA.So says a new study released Wednesday that found the NBA had the
highest ever percentages of minority vice presidents and league office
personnel in men's sports history - 15 and 34 percent, respectively.
The study was conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in
Sport at the University of Central Florida.The findings follow a separate report last week from a University of
Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell graduate student concluding white
referees called fouls against black players at a higher rate than they
did against white players.UCF researcher Richard Lapchick, who specializes in diversity in
sports, said his report focuses on the bigger picture: Who's getting
top NBA jobs, not whether unconscious racial bias could affect the game.

September 2012

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